As a marriage-and-family author, Jerry has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program and is a sought-after speaker and humorist. See www.AmbassadorSpeakers.com.
Jerry has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Dianna, have three grown sons and four grandchildren.
Check out Jerry’s blog at http://jerryjenkins.blogspot.com.
DR. TIM LAHAYE (www.timlahaye.com), who conceived and created the idea of fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation, is a noted author, minister, and nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy. He is the founder of both Tim LaHaye Ministries and The PreTrib Research Center. Presently Dr. LaHaye speaks at many Bible prophecy conferences in the U.S. and Canada, where his current prophecy books are very popular.
Dr. LaHaye holds a doctor of ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and a doctor of literature degree from Liberty University. For 25 years he pastored one of the nation’s outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations. It was during that time that he founded two accredited Christian high schools, a Christian school system of ten schools, and San Diego Christian College (formerly known as Christian Heritage College).
Dr. LaHaye has written over 50 nonfiction and coauthored 25 fiction books, many of which have been translated into 34 languages. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. His most popular fiction works, the Left Behind series, written with Jerry B. Jenkins, have appeared on the best-seller lists of the Christian Booksellers Association, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times.
Another popular series by LaHaye and Jenkins is The Jesus Chronicles. This four-book novel series gives readers rich first-century experiences as John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew recount thrilling accounts of the life of Jesus. Dr. LaHaye is coauthor of another fiction series, Babylon Rising. Each of the four titles in this series have debuted in the top 10 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. These are suspense thrillers with thought-provoking messages.
TEST YOUR PROPHECY IQ
Is it possible that the 200 million horsemen of the sixth trumpet could be an army from China, as many have suggested?
See answer at the end of this section.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FICTION
THE PROPHECY BEHIND THE SCENES
The Locusts of Apollyon Attack (Revelation 9:1-11)
This book in the Left Behind series gets its name from the fifth of the seven Trumpet Judgments—the attack of the locusts of Apollyon. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins describe the background for this event in chapter 13 of their nonfiction book Are We Living in the End Times?
The fifth Trumpet Judgment is also the first of three woes pronounced by the angel of Revelation 8:13—a frightening sign of the ferocity of the coming judgments. When this trumpet is sounded in Revelation 9, an angel unlocks the “bottomless pit,” and out of the pit belches smoke and “locusts” with the scorpion-like power to sting and torment unbelievers for five months. Their sting is never fatal—in fact, John says, “In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them”—but the pain they cause will be unbearable. Victims of scorpion bites say the animal’s venom seems to set one’s veins and nervous system on fire, but the pain is gone after a few days; not so with these locusts. They are given power to torment “those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” for five long months. Yet unlike normal locusts, these beasts attack only unregenerate human beings, never foliage.
The appearance of these locusts is both frightening and repulsive (verses 7-10), and they do not act in an unorganized way; in fact, John says, “They had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon” (verse 11). Both names mean Destroyer.
This seems to be one of the plagues that God sends on the followers of Antichrist to hinder them from proselytizing among the uncommitted of the world. It may also give Tribulation saints some time to prepare themselves for the horrors of the soon-to-come Great Tribulation. In Apollyon the attack of the locusts accomplishes just this purpose. A character named Mac writes to a fellow Tribulation saint:
A few of us believers have been able to pretend we are simply recuperating more quickly, so we don’t lie around the infirmary twenty-four hours a day listening to the agony. Carpathia has sent me on some missions of mercy, delivering aid to some of the worst-off rulers. What he doesn’t know is that David has picked up clandestine shipments of literature, copies of Tsion’s studies in different languages, and has jammed the cargo hold of the Condor 216 with them. Believers wherever I go unload and distribute them.
The Two Witnesses
Prominent in Apollyon and woven through the Left Behind volumes covering the first half of the Tribulation are two characters known as the Two Witnesses. Chapter 23 of Are We Living in the End Times? describes them as two of the most colorful characters in all of Bible prophecy. These two supernatural prophets burst on the scene during the first 1,260 days of the Tribulation. Some try to identify these witnesses as Enoch (because he never died, Genesis 5:24), Elijah (who also never died, 2 Kings 2:11-12), or Moses. Left Behind author Tim LaHaye is inclined to think they are Moses and Elijah, but whatever their identities, God calls them “My two witnesses.” They dress in sackcloth, they prophesy, they dispense astonishing miracles, and they witness to the grace of God in a hostile Jerusalem culture.
Of course, this does not make them popular with the authorities or with the unredeemed multitudes. And it sets up a final confrontation that leaves the world breathless.
The Assassination of the Two Witnesses
For reasons known only to God, the Lord allows the Antichrist to overcome and kill the two witnesses once they “finish their testimony.” Before that time they are untouchable; anyone who threatens them must be killed by flaming fire out of their mouths. But after they have accomplished the mission God entrusts to them, the Antichrist “makes war” on them and kills them.
And then the unsaved people of the world who so hate the witnesses commit an incredibly evil deed. They refuse them a decent burial, leaving their dead bodies to decay in the streets of Jerusalem. They even make a Christmas-like celebration out of their murders by sending and receiving gifts “in honor” of the occasion.
Then an even more incredible thing happens. John prophesies that “those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days” (Revelation 11:9). How could the whole world see their dead bodies? Only a few years ago it was impossible to fulfill that prophecy—but today, with round-the-clock cable news, it could happen at any moment.
That’s Not All, Folks!
Why God allows the Antichrist to kill the two witnesses, we are not told. But we do know the story doesn’t end with their deaths! While the world is watching, God will do a mighty miracle.
Now after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand men were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Revelation 11:11-13
The most supernatural event of those times will be televised instantly around the world Among other things, this will be a loving gesture by God Almighty, not only to resurrect and take to heaven his two prophets, but also to make known his existence and power around the world. We have no doubt that millions of souls to whom the 144,000 Jewish witnesses will be speaking and whom the Holy Spirit will be convicting will see this demonstration of the divine and respond to the Savior.
IN THE MEANTIME . . . since the Left Behind series was first p
ublished.
How do we know when events are really setting the stage for the end times? As the publication of the main Left Behind series proceeded from 1995 to 2003, and especially since 9/11, it increasingly seemed as though the major headlines had a prophetic ring to them. However, any speculating must be done with caution. We really do have some powerful evidence for supposing that our generation has more reason than any before us to believe Jesus could come in our lifetime! Still, although there are several signs of the end in existence today, it is unwise to set limits on the season. But it is worth pointing out that some of these signs did not exist even a half generation ago.
An example of looking back with a long view is a May 15, 2005, article in the Left Behind Prophecy Newsletter (2003–2009) by Mark Hitchcock on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Without a doubt, the end of the European theater in WWII stands as one of the enduring moments of the twentieth century.
But many people may have never stopped to consider the significance of WWII as a stage-setting event for the end times. The last half of the 20th century brought some incredible changes that produced effects that are still with us today. None of the events in the last fifty years are direct fulfillments of Bible prophecy but they bear amazing correspondence to the picture the Bible paints of the end times. They show how world events seem to be shaping up for the final Middle East conflict presented in the Bible. I believe that WWII may the single greatest stage-setting event for the end times.
World War II helped set the stage for the end times in at least two key ways. First, along with World War I, it provided the necessary impetus for the reuniting of Europe, which was the core of the historical Roman Empire. Ever since the break-up of the Roman Empire in AD 476, the nations of Europe fought one another again and again. For centuries, Europe was a battlefield with only brief respites in the ongoing conflict.
But in the aftermath of WWII, a dramatic change occurred. The severity and brutality of the conflict left Europe with no alternative other than to make some attempt to end the constant warfare. Instead of building up for the next great armed conflict as they had done for almost 1,600 years, six of the nations of Europe decided to come together in a coalition of nations that was originally called the Common Market.
The second way that WWII helped set the stage for the end times is the creation of the nation of Israel in 1948. The collective angst and guilt of the world for allowing the Holocaust was a powerful incentive for the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people. And the regathering of the Jews to their land in unbelief is the key event that must occur for the events of the end times to unfold.
Thank God for his sovereign hand in bringing the horror of the Third Reich to its knees. But also thank God for using such a tragedy, in His providence, to set the stage for the end times.
A lot has happened in the world since the momentous events of World War II. Try to list a few and see how many could have prophetic implications.
TEST YOUR PROPEHCY IQ—ANSWER
No, as we’ll see both in the story of Assassins and our ending notes in that volume, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins remind us that the 200 million horsemen are not humans but demons, and their steeds are not horses but creatures “so awesome to look on . . .that they actually frighten people to death.”
Tim LaHaye, Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed
(Series: Left Behind # 5)
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